Kiwis and Kookaburras

Sheena has had a quiet week for no obvious reason. Not sick, but not much spark. She picked up a lot yesterday when we had visitors, and she has been better today too. As of yesterday, I've taken her off weatbix for breakfast, wondering if its too heavy for her, and making her sluggish. Could possibly be a gluten intolerance, but I am not sure. She's moved to rice bubbles, and its going OK.

Sheena loves birds. We'll all be sitting inside the house, and she'll spin her head whenever a bird makes the slightest sound. When its not cold, hubby likes to take her out onto the balcony for her morning fix of the passing birds. Today, I had her outside on a mini-trampoline with her kiwi and kookaburra soft toys and she was the same, spinning around a the slightest chirp.

Remiss

Sheena started her EI playgroup today after the school holiday break. Fortunately she is back to being healthy and happy after her umpteenth illness for the year. This one lasted only 4 days which is a record. Unfortunately she missed a fun 3rd birthday party during this one, but thats the way it is.

Sheena is rather obsessed with her Nan at the moment. Nan is rather fond of Sheena too, so that is no surprise. Nan met us at playgroup today to pick Sheena up, and the little one couldn't control herself. She got stuck on the carpet and couldn't shuffle over, but she jumped up and down on her rear trying to propel herself over. Everyone thought it was very cute. Lots of new songs. Fortunately Sheena liked Hadie-Ho, where they have to be positioned in quadruped, because its usually hard to keep it fun in that possie.

We got cc'd on correspondence from Sheena's Neuro to her GP regarding her last appointment. He mentioned that her Infantile Spasms or West Syndrome is in remission. How much I wish he'd written 'cured', because that is generally what I say to Doc's etc when they take a history. Its a very dark shadow. They've never used the remission word before, so it was a bit of a shock. Anyway, its just a word, I think she's cured.

Le Tour

Here is sheena enjoying the peloton at le tour, no doubt dreaming of cycling in France in the years to come.

Sheena has had some big gains this past week. She now wants to pull to stand, and can do it so long as her feet are in a good position to get it happening. She also followed me into the bathroom and the kitchen, and she pulled herself up to stand using the hand-rail in the bath. One of my girlfriends told me that kids often make a few steps all at the one time because certain muscles gain strength and it helps with several things.

Oh no it's Winter!

Baby had a trip to Emergency Department this week with Croup. It came out of no-where, other than a cold for the preceding few days. Her Nan was looking after Sheena that night, and rang me with a barking baby in the background at 11pm. Nan is not one to panic, so when she said it looked like we should take her in, I didn't argue. We didn't have to stay at hospital for long, as she recovered really quickly after treatment, and her breathing was much improved. After that episode, Sheena's cold is a fair bit worse, and she is very quiet and asking for a fair bit of sleep to get over it.

So, we're stuck in the house, not that I would have been up to much anyway, because I have a bad cold myself, and its miserable weather outside.

Yesterday, we had a visit from Sheena's EI service to discuss her six monthly goals. Sheena has come a very long way since February. Sheena is very alert these days, but watching her be unable to get around bothers me a lot. I'd love her to come over and ask for a cuddle, or to be able to follow me into the bathroom or the kitchen. Not being able to move from one room to the other means that she is still very reliant on us for stimulation. The pressure is off from a while back when she couldn't roll or sit or shuffle about, but physically she's still far from where most kids with DS are at 19 months. She certainly had 6 months wiped because of her illness last year, and while on high-dose Pred she went back to newborn skills, but although there are reasons for her being behind with her gross motor, I'd rather she wasn't. So our goals are all normal things, like gross motor, fine motor and speech.

Sheena has recently taken up a few new hobbies to pass the time.

Drawing, very, very seriously.

Assisting with the vacuuming, and looking rather guilty about it.

Driving her big red car inside the house.

Practicing her yoga moves.